Method of making a dried citrus fruit food product



Patented Jan. 9, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE METHOD OF MAKING A DRIED CITRUS FRUIT FOOD PRODUCT Glen Overton No Drawing. Application June 19, 1937,

Serial No. 149,201

1 Claim. (01. 99-21 This invention relates to a method of making a dried citrus fruit food product, especially suited for animal feed and possibly for human food.

In the preparation of canned fruit juices and I dried fruit powders from citrus fruit, as much as 65% of the weight of the original fruit is discarded as waste. This waste includes the rind, cellular tissue and seeds of the'fruit and has heretofore been considered of insufficient 10 commercial importance, especially in the case of oranges and grapefruit, to warrant further processing. I

We have now found, however, that the waste from citrus fruits, such as oranges and grapell fruit, has a comparatively high food value when fed to cattle. We have further found that if such waste is first ground to a paste, screened and dried in thin film form, it can economically the extraction of. the juices of citrus fruitsyin accordance with which the waste is first reduced to a finely divided pulp or paste and then dried in thin film 'form to produce a dried flaked product.

Other and further important objects of this invention will become apparent from the following description and appended claim.

The starting material used in the method of our invention comprises the waste from the manufacture of canned fruit juices and fruit powders m from citrus fruits, more particularlygrapefruit. This waste includes the rind, cellular tissues and seeds or the grapefruit. In its form as I from fruit juice extraction plants, it is not suitable for animal consumption except for a very short time, but can be preserved by the method now to be described. 4

According to our method. the citrus fruit waste.

including seeds and all, is first ground up mm; a pulp or pastein a suitable type 01 grindingmill. For this'purpose, a hammer'mill hasbeen found most satisfactory. As the waste material is ground up. it is also screened. so that upon- As it leaves the mill, the paste usually has about 85% moisture content. With this moisture content, the paste is very heavy, like mush, and not free-flowing.

The drying of the paste is preferably carried 5 out on a drum drier heated internally by steam, or other suitable means. About 70 to 100 pounds per square inch gauge steam pressure gives asatisfactory drum surface temperature for the drying operation. The paste is fed onto the m revolving surface of the drier and mechanically spread thereover, as by means of a spreader roll or the like, into a uniform, thin film of perhaps not over about V inch thickness in the wet form. As the drum revolves, the moisture is quickly driven out of the film, so that the drying takes place comparatively rapidly, without any scorching or burning of the paste ingredients. After drying, the moisture content should be less than and preferably between 5. and 8%.

The dryfilm is scraped or doctored oil? of the drum surface and thereby broken up into the form of flakes of a thickness of not more than a few thousandths of an inch. In this form, the p oduct can be economically transported for use 35 as a cattle feed. The product can be readily made up intoa mush by the addition of water or other liquid, preparatory to feeding it to the r stock, but is used by many as'a dry feed.

We are aware that numerous details of the 30 processmay be varied through a wide range without departing from the principles of this invention, and we, therefore, do not purpose limitlng the patent granted hereon otherwise than necessitated by the prior art. 1 as We claim as our invention:

The method of mahng edible thin flakes from citrus waste without loss of solubles to preserve in the product substantially all of the solids content, including dissolved solids,'of therind. 40 cellular tissues, and seeds of citrus fruit waste, which -comprisesgrinding said waste without substantial loss o'f water content until a mushlike finely comminuted paste is obtained, screen- :ing oversize particles from the paste to obtain a a unifomi'non-free-fiowing mass, spreading the screened paste into a thin film on a heated rototing surface, heating said surface to rapidly evaporate moisture from the film without scorch- 8 or burning of the paste ingredients, continu- 60. his the heating of the film untilthe moisture. content thereof is less than about 10%. and scraping the dried m from the heated surface to obtain thin flakes'as described.

-' GLEN OVER-TON.

, LYLI 8. OVIR'I'ON. 

